You’ll save money and save the environment too, because most electricity worldwide is still generated by polluting fossil fuels.

It doesn’t take much muscle power to flip a switch and turn on a light, a refrigerator, an air conditioner or washing machine.

But that effortlessness is deceptive. Every electric appliance, especially those generating cold or heat, gobbles up a whole lot of energy.

Electricity prices are skyrocketing across the world, due in large part to the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That’s because Russia is the largest oil and gas exporter to global markets and supplies a lot of the coal as well. Fears of supply interruption, plus sanctions placed on Russia, have destabilized prices.

t doesn’t take much muscle power to flip a switch and turn on a light, a refrigerator, an air conditioner or washing machine.

But that effortlessness is deceptive. Every electric appliance, especially those generating cold or heat, gobbles up a whole lot of energy.

Electricity prices are skyrocketing across the world, due in large part to the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That’s because Russia is the largest oil and gas exporter to global markets and supplies a lot of the coal as well. Fears of supply interruption, plus sanctions placed on Russia, have destabilized prices.

Indeed, the vast majority of electricity is still generated by those highly polluting fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal. According to the World Coal Association, coal fuels 37 percent of global electricity and in some countries as much as 70%.

So electricity isn’t just expensive. It’s also environmentally destructive.

Renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy, aren’t predicted to make much of a dent in that figure for the foreseeable future.

“Most people don’t really think about the connection to the environment when they turn on a light or an air conditioner, but it’s very direct,” says Hebrew University chemistry professor Lioz Etgar.

Prof. Lioz Etgar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Photo by Tehila Katz

Etgar, who researches new materials that can more efficiently and cheaply generate power from the sun, says using less electricity in our everyday lives isn’t only about lowering utility bills.

“Of course it’s nice to save money,” he says, “but conserving electricity is important for everybody mainly because of the environment. If we consume a lot of electricity, this consumes a lot of coal that we have to burn to generate this electricity. And that causes a lot of pollution and influences our weather and our life on the planet.”

Some of Etgar’s tips below may already be second nature for you (we hope!) and others could easily become part of your daily consciousness.

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